Stories are narratives that can have a great effect on who we are and what we become.

To me, a story is painting a picture with words. Each little character is a mark, that when placed with other characters, form a subject, and when those subjects are placed together on the same canvas, they form a picture. Of course, a picture can have as many or as few subjects as necessary.

A story is comprised of events, situations, characters, settings, and (most importantly) movement. These different pieces of the story are key to immersing the reader and/or viewer into an entirely different world. This construction of words and terms are what helps connect our society from one to another.

At the bare minimum, this is the effect that it had on me…

When I was younger, my parents would take me to church so that I could be a good boy. For a while, I would be separated from them, which was a rarity for any 4-year-old attending home-school, and go to Sunday school. There, I would learn many different Bible stories about David, Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. Each of these stories had some sort of lesson to be learned, mostly on how to make sure that you go to Heaven and not… Come to think of it, they never really mentioned anything other than Heaven….

Anyway, these stories helped instill a long withstanding moral code that I had followed for much of my prepubescent life. I had always done my best to make sure that I didn’t anger God with any sin that I had; All these stories of miscellaneous people goofing up usually led to the wrath of God made me fearful of failure. It was during my middle school years that I began to realize that my sins were not much of a factor on whether or not I would meet God’s wrath.

Regardless, to this day, I still have a need in me to not be a terrible person (I avoid saying “be a good person” because my definition may not fit other people’s definition). Whether it be Bible stories or superhero movies, I was told not to be a good person for my own needs (because that makes you not a good person), but to be a good person for the rest of the world. Making the world a better place is the truest and best reward, as these stories have told me.